Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was the queer, brown Gilmore Girls remake of my dreams and I am LIVING FOR IT. This was the best kind of enemies-to-lovers story fueled by misunderstandings and insecurities rather than actual douchebaggery. Both Sana and Rachel were gorgeously fleshed out characters coming to terms with family expectations, dreams versus reality, financial pressure, and struggling to present the most honest version of yourself.
I was once again blessed to read the second story in the last month about a Jewish character whose Judaism is actually an integral part of her identity and her story. The Passover seder literally had me wanting to shout from the rooftops because this is how you include cultural tradition and identity into story!! I really had to put the book down and just soak in that scene because it felt so god damn good.
Honestly, I'm just kinda sitting here grinning stupidly to myself over how much I just adore this book. This was definitely one the highlights of my year and I will absolutely be coming back to this book again and again.
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Not Your Villain by C.B. Lee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I spent the first few chapters of this book being hella confused before I was able to square away the timelines of this book and its predecessor. It was honestly really disappointing to realize that the full first third of this book was just retelling the events of Not Your Sidekick. I definitely didn't feel like Bells's viewpoint added enough extra to our understanding of what happened in Sidekick to justify putting so much time into retelling it. That entire first third could have been cut and more time could have been put into Bells's family's illegal farming and the methods of resistance that his family has been practicing for decades already and how that informs the way Bells and his friends form their new resistance efforts. I feel like Lee really dropped the ball there and it made the entire reading experience kind of underwhelming.
I still love the characters of this series and I'll definitely continue it (esp since the next book is from Emma's POV and we're gonna get a lot of questioning aroace content which I am SO HERE FOR) but this installment just didn't do a ton for me. Which was unfortunate.
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